Traditional media outlets, such as newspaper, outdoor and broadcast media such as radio, television and cable stations/networks, have a system for selling advertising space and time to purchasers. These purchasers are generally separated into two distinct media purchaser categories, advertising agencies and direct advertisers. In terms of pricing, advertising space is traditionally offered to advertising agencies at a discount and to direct advertisers at no discount. Additionally, this also reduces costs for the advertising agencies because they have the ability to negotiate for advertising space or time from the advantage of having an analytical process for evaluating the value and efficiencies of the media being purchased. Particularly for broadcast media advertising, the direct advertiser lacks an understanding of the price/value considerations necessary to negotiate a lower pricing level for the purchase of advertising media. As a result, direct advertisers generally incur higher unit costs for their advertising space and time than the advertising agencies.
Although media outlets typically have access to analytical data to evaluate the efficiencies of their advertising, for example the cost-per-spot, it is not advantageous to disclose this information to the general public because it would lead the direct advertiser to competitors with better, more efficient rates. More importantly however, is the fact that the direct advertiser lacks full comprehension of such data.
Currently, an advertiser that does not use the professional services of an advertising agency, e.g. a direct advertiser, is left to its own judgment about media selection, negotiating and buying the advertising, and the creative execution for each advertising dollar. Evaluating media selection and assessing rates and proper spending levels, while participating in creative commercial development, can be an awesome task for the direct advertiser. When a direct advertiser contacts any of the above-described media outlet choices, many factors will influence the form of media they choose for advertising their business. Direct advertisers will not know whether they have made the right local media outlet choices or have scheduled an adequate frequency of advertising messages. They will also not know if the advertising rates they paid were too high or if the total time commitment was too much or not enough. Few of these direct advertisers are qualified to effectively evaluate media selection and its cost or to develop properly crafted commercial messages.
When an advertising agency is involved in the traditional media-buying process, the advertising agency contacts the media outlet to request rate(s) or rate(s) with schedule(s) for one or more particular media advertising choices (newspaper, outdoor, TV, cable, radio or any combination of these). The selected media outlet sends the rate(s) or rate(s) with schedule(s) to the advertising agency which then negotiates with the media outlet for better rate(s). The advertising agency sends a second request, based on the new negotiated rate(s), to the media outlet which then sends adjusted rate(s) and schedule(s), based on the new (second) request, back to the advertising agency. After the advertising agency receives the adjusted rate(s) and schedule(s) from the media outlet and gets its client's approval, the advertisement(s) is placed with the media outlet by the advertising agency.
If a direct advertiser is involved in the media-buying process, the advertiser contacts the media outlet directly, which sends a salesperson to meet with the advertiser. After the salesperson has received information relating to the direct advertiser's needs, he/she returns to the media outlet with a request for rate(s) and schedule(s). The salesperson returns to the advertiser's office to present rate(s) and schedule(s) prepared by the media outlet. These rate(s) and schedule(s) can be negotiated a number of times or not at all before the salesperson turns in an advertising order to the media outlet.
Advertising agencies typically use a number of media software programs for analyzing the pricing and effectiveness of broadcast media advertising. A known radio analysis software program is TAPSCAN® that uses various databases in order to evaluate and generate scheduling and posting options. TAPSCAN's reports can include prebuy research including frequency-based tables, cost-per-point analysis, hour-by-hour and trending; scheduling adjustments for local and national consumer data, automatic scheduling and goal tracking, and optimal scheduling of day parts. A known analysis software program for the television and cable market is TVSCAN® that produces similar reports for the television and cable market. Another software program, available from Scarborough Research, provides qualitative data relating to media usage, retail shopping, demographics, lifestyle activities, and other consumer behaviors for sixty six local markets. Other media buying software is available from SMARTPLUS™, Strata Software, COREMedia Systems, Inc., Telmar, and SQAD™ for television and SPARCSM for radio, which both provide cost per point data by market.
Since the proliferation of Internet based companies, a number of web-based advertising or media-buying service companies have become available. These companies can be classified into three separate groups. One group provides content-related Web sites that provide updated listings of broadcast stations, newspapers and magazines and their contact information. A second group consists of the Web sites of traditional advertising agencies and media-buying shat serve primarily as an online brochure for these companies. A third group consists of online media brokerage, consignment and exchange services that attempt to bring media buyers and sellers together via the Internet, thereby adding another layer between the buyer and seller. This third group is specifically directed to advertising agencies and media buying firms.
One example of an online media buying company is AdOutlet.com that uses an inventory replenishment system that posts a limited number of print and broadcast inventory on its site. Once the inventory is sold to the highest bidder, AdOutlet.com posts another set of available media inventory and the process is repeated. Another web-based company is OneMediaPlace.com that allows buyers to either purchase or bid on available media from a limited number of participating sellers. The inventory is sold on consignment through an auction process as well as set-price purchases. Most of the inventory on this site comes from online suppliers rather than traditional media outlets. OneMediaPlace also offers a platform in which buyers submit requests for proposals for broadcast media advertising and the site matches the requests with participating sellers.
Another web-based company, BuyMedia.com, serves primarily as a broker/fax service between agency buyers and broadcast media outlets. This site provides open-ended transactions between buyers and sellers in which a broadcast media purchase is negotiated and finalized between the buyers and the sellers. BroadcastSpots.com is an online media service that offers unsold broadcast inventory to media buyers at discounted rates. BroadcastSpots.com serves as a catalog by posting remnant media inventory and rates for buyers. BroadcastSpots.com also has a system that forwards a buyer's request for proposal to the broadcast media outlets that is similar to the service provided by OneMediaPlace.com.
It would be advantageous to provide direct advertisers with a method and system for selecting and purchasing traditional media advertising over the Internet. It would also be advantageous to provide a system in which direct advertisers can access technical and analytical data that has been converted to a simplified rating system thus allowing them to make independent, accurate and informed decisions about their media purchases.
It would be further advantageous to provide a system that reduces the time required for the media buying process, that expands the advertiser's media outlet choices, improves scheduling options, and streamlines the complete transaction between media outlet and advertiser.